The present invention relates to a stopper removal apparatus and especially to a stopper removal apparatus, which shields a person from the contents of a medical container while the person is removing the stopper.
In the past, a wide variety of medical container have been provided with various types of caps, such as screw caps and lids and various types of stoppers. Typically, containers for holding specimens to be analyzed, such as blood and urine samples, are kept in simple medical vials having rubber stoppers attached thereto and labeled to identify the specimen. Specimen are taken in doctors offices and in hospitals labeled and sent to a pathology or testing lab for analyzing for various types of medical conditions. Personnel in labs and hospitals have become more concerned about the handling of specimen containers especially in the insertion and removal of the stoppers into vial types of medical containers. The present invention is directed towards preventing any contact with a patient specimen in the insertion and removal of rubber stoppers into medical containers and especially into vials.